Sunday, November 4, 2012

Last week, both the US and Canadian governments revealed that they will combine efforts against cyber-attacks with the creation of an action plan between the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and Public Safety Canada (PSC) to improve digital infrastructure.

Because governmental officials state that “the Internet knows no borders” there would only be benefits from creating “a shared infrastructure” to protect government secrets and digital information.

The connection between “vital cyber systems” is borne out of a “mutual interest in partnering to protect shared” organization. In Washington, DC and Ottawa, Canada there will be a collaboration of cyber security operation centers as well as shared information and the establishment of guidelines on private sector corporations. Added to this endeavor is the governmental alliance on propaganda methods to convince the citizens of both nations that cyber security must become an over-arching control by the two governments.

DHS has begun an initiative to purvey propaganda onto American citizens called Stop.Think.Connect. (STC). The STC have teamed with Microsoft to create public service announcements (PSAs) that convince average Americans on how to perceive the inflated threat hackers have on the US government’s cybersecurity.

In Canada, the government-sponsored Get Cyber Safe campaign that defines public risks as cellular phones, online banking, social networks, private emails, YouTube, VoIP, downloading/file sharing and online shopping. Essentially, all activity conducted online can potentially be hacked into and therefore there is a clear and present necessity for creating an invisible perimeter wherein the government can control cyber-activity for the sake of securing the Web.

At the latest Canadian Association of Defense and Security Industries conference, Dean Turner, computer security expert for Symantec said: “The big problem is behavior at this point.” Turner elaborates on the point that malware, Trojan horses, and cyber espionage is successful because it is easily installed into systems.

Turner would like the private sector to take governmental claims of the danger of cyber-attacks, hackers and the necessity of federal control over cybersecurity seriously.

What we need to start thinking about is not how we would attack, but how our adversaries are attacking and will attack.

In Canada, as in the US, there is an initiative to begin educating the public on cybersecurity fears at an early age. Turner admonishes the ignorant masses by saying that

we need to focus is going after the bad guys, and right now they couldn’t care less. If we’re going to make a dent in this type of thing, we have to start going after these guys and we have to start establishing relationships between law enforcement and governments about what constitutes an actual crime.

Canadian Tory Senator, Pamela Wallin, chair of the Senate Defense Committee, believes that Canadian corporations must tell their customers about cybersecurity breaches and take responsibility for educating the public. Wallin said: “That’s a whole new paradigm. This, as they say, is war.”

Focusing cybersecurity onto the public is the focus of some representatives in the Canadian government. This scheme then redirects the citizens to support all governmental controls “for their own good.”

The Canadian Cyber Incident Reporting Center has established that the Canadian government has lost an estimated $1 billion in monies allocated to cybersecurity wherein only $20.9 million actually was spent on these measures.

In the US, to combat this nameless, faceless threat, the DHS is setting the foundation for a “cyber reserve” of IT experts that will be employed as needed during a cyber-attack.

Jane Holl Lute, DHS Deputy Secretary, wants to create the cyber reserve from retired government employees working in the private sector for intelligence technology corporations. Those chosen would conduct forensic investigations and be “intelligence liaisons” to the DHS.

Susanne Posel is the Chief Editor of Occupy Corporatism. Our alternative news site is dedicated to reporting the news as it actually happens; not as it is spun by the corporately funded mainstream media. You can find us on our Facebook page.

2 comments:

arthurdecco
said...

1984 is right around the corner thanks to our repulsive politicians.

They have been assigned the responsibility for safeguarding the futures and protecting the pasts of their fellow citizens but instead have, generation after generation, sold themselves to the highest bidder - a sub-genre of humanity who as anyone sensible knows, rank amongst the lowest of the low by any measure.

This is where thet get us the little guy that goes on line and watches you tube or emails a friend or goes online to read about what his government is really doing that main stream news won't talk about.Then they tell us of the threats that there country is receiving but it has nothing to do about us little guys andthe next thing you no is we are being spied on ,have our habbits known and given to some marketing company that dumps popups on or systems or shut us off from reading informed sights that let us know how are governments are screwing us along with the private sector and the next thing you no is we are getting a knock on the door from the RCMP or maybe the FBI now that Harpewr has joined or to countries together.This is a take over of Canada's soveignty no doubt about it.When Harper is finished his time in office our water and all other resources will be in the hands of corporations foreign mostly and there will be nothing we can do about it.You can kiss Canada goodbye!

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